'03 Tacoma Prerunner

[mobilerik]

If you can't see the pix some reason, here's the link to the web album: Picasa Web Albums - Rik - Truck

[brucey]

If you look at the image name and copy it to the address bar it works, although the only pic that displays is a JPG while most of the others are PNG file types. Try changing the filenames to JPG maybe?

Also: fluffy kitty!

It's so neat how you're doing aero mods while keeping it up in the air.

[MetroMPG]

Nice to see another vehicle get front skirts.

I finally had to pull mine off about a month ago because they were getting full of snow/ice. It would have built up enough to prevent them from closing properly. They're only a 3 season mod for me (not a problem for you in CA, I see).

[groar]

Originally Posted by akashic

Front Wheel Skirts Are Operational!

Congrats akashic
During this first week, does you front skirts react well ?

Do you feel a change at your butt-o-meter ? or in some place such as a faster glide when you go down-hill or a longer glide in some other places ?

Do you see a change in numbers shown by the SGII ? I'm particularly thinking about the load.

How does people react about them ? I have regularly fun when I spot someone wondering about the full front grill block of the scenic
The overall look of your car is fantastic Children must love your car.

Denis.

[mobilerik]

Originally Posted by groar

Congrats akashic
During this first week, does you front skirts react well ?

As far as "do they work?" in a mechanical sense, they've held up well. One thing I'm liking about my cheap no-weld-coroplast-and-lumber-ties version is that they're flexible. As you can see in the photo from the front, they don't actually push out like a wing very much -- they actually bulge out more than they protract.

There is one minor annoyance, which is that I made the "push plates" too narrow, and when I turn at certain angles, the tire scrapes the sides of the push plate and makes fart noises. This only sometimes happens on the left side on a right turn -- the right side is silent. Pretty cool.

I'm a little concerned about the vibration, though, because I made these with acrylic, because that's what I had around. And acrylic has a tendency to shatter like glass, which would be bad around the tires. Come to think of it, that's pretty stupid, and I should change those out today for something else.

Do you feel a change at your butt-o-meter ? or in some place such as a faster glide when you go down-hill or a longer glide in some other places ?

The weather this week has been too inconsistent to get a good read. But I think I'm able to coast longer and faster. I did make a big change in my driving habits this week when I noticed I wasn't decelerating as much, and that I could often avoid pulsing as much before the long hills, just getting myself up to 55 or even 53 rather than gassing up to 60. But I'm pretty sure I could have made that change a month ago had I been paying more attention, so it's hard to tell how much is due to the front skirts.

Do you see a change in numbers shown by the SGII ? I'm particularly thinking about the load.

I can't tell yet. I made a mistake at the pump by forgetting to reset it when I filled up, so this tank was confusing. (I'm not really trusting the daily trip averages as much any more, and I prefer now to calculate my tank from the SG's tank miles and gallons, because they've been calibrated dead-on the last few weeks. But since that was off, I didn't fuss with the dailies this week.)

BUT -- I have been noticing something the past few weeks that is tough to confirm, because it is inconsistent, and tough to nail down with the varying weather conditions, particularly the winds. It seems that I may be experiencing the BSFC shift that occurs with dramatically-improved aero. The main symptom I'm struggling with is that I'm now requiring more throttle to get up the hills. I used to be able to make it up my hills with TPS 18-20. I never had to go above 20. Now I frequently need to gas at TPS 22-23, getting 20mpg or less up certain hills. I'm not entirely certain that this isn't sometimes due to losing overdrive, as is happening more now, because my automatic shift points seem to wander sometimes. And I'm finding I often can't hold 50mph up the same hills without giving a lot of gas. Can some of you engine gurus help me figure this out?

I did just think of this... since my cold-air intake is in the wheel well, could I be suffocating the engine now? Can that happen? As I think about it my symptoms seem more like a loss of power than a specific efficiency-loss.

How does people react about them ? I have regularly fun when I spot someone wondering about the full front grill block of the scenic
The overall look of your car is fantastic Children must love your car.

Thanks for the compliments. Out in the real world, I'm really not much of a showoff, and I'm introverted enough that I don't really care to have strangers talking to me. That said, I haven't noticed that many people looking at it. Maybe it's because I'm in California... I don't know. I'm mean, really, I see so many jacked up monster-trucks, that I'm sure I fall into that category of "There goes another ridiculous truck-modder guy." I have had however, two very good conversations with some aero-engineers who have stopped to check it out. But for the most part, I've stopped wondering what people think, because after a month of watching peoples' expressions, most don't seem to even notice! Also I work at a university. The staff parking lot is about a quarter-full of Priuses. I bet a number of those who even notice are saying to themselves, "Oh, neat, a fuel-efficiency experiment..." and think nothing more of it, because for them, it's sort of obvious. Which is a reaction I can live with.

[groar]

Thanks a lot for that long reply

Originally Posted by akashic

BUT -- I have been noticing something the past few weeks that is tough to confirm, because it is inconsistent, and tough to nail down with the varying weather conditions, particularly the winds. It seems that I may be experiencing the BSFC shift that occurs with dramatically-improved aero. The main symptom I'm struggling with is that I'm now requiring more throttle to get up the hills. I used to be able to make it up my hills with TPS 18-20. I never had to go above 20. Now I frequently need to gas at TPS 22-23, getting 20mpg or less up certain hills. I'm not entirely certain that this isn't sometimes due to losing overdrive, as is happening more now, because my automatic shift points seem to wander sometimes. And I'm finding I often can't hold 50mph up the same hills without giving a lot of gas. Can some of you engine gurus help me figure this out?

I did just think of this... since my cold-air intake is in the wheel well, I might be suffocating the engine now. Is that likely?

I will not be able to reply you about that problem. Very few people met that problem here. Hope Basjoos or another one will be able to give you a hint.

Denis.

[sepp]

your thread is verry interesting, congratulations on the work so far. we sort of have the same vehicle.

im interested to know how you attached the wheel covers? what type of rims do you have?
i have fancy aluminium rims on wich you can't attach anything.
i will soon be making wheel skirts myself

[mobilerik]

Originally Posted by sepp

im interested to know how you attached the wheel covers? what type of rims do you have?

Good question! I took photos of the whole process, but now I can't figure out where they are. When I find them, I'll post it in another thread.

In short, these are the stock rims. (I copied this from another site.)

It took me a long time to figure out how to attach the pizza pans. In the end I decided zip ties were the most convenient way. Maybe I can communicate what I did without photos....

• I used the 3 slits around the outer edge of the rims to tie down the pans.
  
  
• I also cut 3 corresponding slits into the pizza pans. I used a Dremel cutoff disc -- real quick-and-dirty -- to make the slits.
  
  
• Using the same cutoff disc, I shaved off a shallow tunnel on the reverse side, to fit the zip tie and allow the pan to lie flush.
  
  
• Then I zipped them onto the rim at the 3 slits.

Tip: Wax the pizza pans when you're done! The pizza pans are not aluminum, as I assumed, but steel, as a magnet will confirm for you. They will rust. Mine certainly did. I tried rust remover on them and all that did was spread the rust uniformly around the pans. Next go around I may even consider painting them.

[mobilerik]

The rear end is now diffused...

This was a fairly simple mod. All I had to do was lower the trailing end of the belly screen, which had been zipped and taped to the rear bumper, so that it would end about 1-1/2" above the level of the rear axle. Calculated using 36" times tan(2.5)

And it should have been a quick one, but it took me quite a long time. After I had decided what bolts under the bumpers to attach the risers to, then measured, cut, and drilled the aluminum angle-bar, I couldn't undo the damn bolts! Every wrench I could find either didn't fit or couldn't get enough leverage to loosen them. So I chose a different set of bolts that was easier to get at, and after confirming that, yes! they do loosen, I redid everything...

The horizontal bars are just painted wood. They were the easiest thing to screw into for this purpose. The forward support is just a hurricane tie attached to the mudflap tab. Once the frame was in place, I restretched the screen around the bars and stapled it in place.

I didn't put any vanes on it. I figure I'll do that at the same time I fair the rear wheels. I'm happy to have something to attach the fairings to now.

For the fairings, one puzzle in my way is to deal with the exhaust. The exhaust currently doesn't extend far enough to the side to just run the exhaust through a hole in the fairing. Should I extend it? Should I reroute it out the back?

Note: For those still wanting a visual of the pizza wheels, you can kinda tell what I mean from these pix.

[COcyclist]

I vote for re-routing the exhaust straight out the back to let the hot air help fill in your wake. This would simplify making the wheel fairings too. I really think manufacturers choose the side exhaust location to keep from gassing people foolishly riding in the bed of a truck with a topper with the tailgate down.